Yes it is winter at our house and this old lady does not do well with the cold so we will go back inside.
I tried out a new small scrub board I got for Christmas. They sell them on Amazon and it is very small but sturdy. Good for scrubbing socks and small things.
I boiled an old work towel of my husbands. I figured it was a good time to answer a question why did people stand and stir clothes in a boiling pot.
My only answer for this question comes from what I have observed from boiling cloth goods. First of all if you boil rags on your stove be very careful. Make sure there are no children or pets in the kitchen because it will splash out very easy.
Boiling clothes will get out some stains that scrubbing will not. Many fabrics these days should not be boiled because they will not hold up and could even melt.
But something like pure cotton can take the boiling. White cotton socks, kitchen drying cloths and rags.
Boiling works the dirt loose and dissolves the soap but it will boil over very quickly and you must watch the temperature. I use lye soap and I don't know about other soaps that are synthetic. It is also a way to sanitize.
When we boil cloth it will rise up with air and you have to stand there and push it back down with a stick of some sorts. Be careful because it will splatter boiling water. In the past they did this outside over a fire and a big pot and a big stick.
Here I am pushing it back down to get the air out but it will boil back up right away because the air bubbles get under the fabric so I cannot leave it, I have to stand there with a stick and push and stir to keep the air out of the garments.
We moved the twin bed out of the sewing room and into the back guest room and the chest of drawers into the sewing room, thus a crick in my neck. I like this arrangement much better. The line that is showing across the top of this picture is one of my inside clothes lines.
I cleaned out my soap, fabric and assorted items cabinet. That plastic bag at the top right is lavender that is going into sachets that I will be making.
Cabinet after, cookbooks at the top, my old books in the middle and my soap in the bottom. I have no clue at this time where all the other things are going but I will figure it out. I needed to move my books to this cabinet so I can reach them better. I think I am getting shorter.
Had to pick the last of the bell peppers due to a hard freeze, somehow the last time I picked the last of the peppers due to a freeze they made more. This weather is just crazy.
So I washed them and sliced them up and put them on the dehydrator. I dehydrated them at 130 dehydrator degrees for 6 hours.
This is how they look after being dehydrated. As all the dehydrated food it reduces the size so it takes little space to store.
All of those peppers in that strainer are reduced down to this small amount. I air sealed them in a wide mouth quart jar. These would have fit into a much smaller jar if I needed the space.
if I have something I am going to cook and I don't have any fresh bell peppers I can take out what I need, rehydrate them and air seal the jar again.
We made some pizzas so I could wrap some up for my husbands lunches.
We make homemade flour tortillas and then make pizza with them so the slices are smaller. Then cut it pie shape and wrap each piece in wax paper.
Then wrap the towel around it. This way my husband just opens the towel and unwrap each slice and it makes it easier to eat it in the car. He can snack on them or eat them all at once.
I made some cinnamon rolls too.
Something else my husband likes to find in his lunch box.
So these are a few things I am doing since it is too cold to go outside.
Grandma Donna
